Marni / Pre-Fall 2012

Search a show by:

Should you have been in London some time over the last few months, you might have been lucky enough to catch the “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990” exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. If you did, you’d have noted the huge contribution that Italy’s designers made to the Postmodernist movement, with Ettore Sottsass, of the Memphis Group, among other projects, being its prime mover. It’s worth mentioning because there has always been something of the postmodern about Marni, the Italian fur house that went headlong into fashion nearly two decades ago: The blithe referencing of eras, the love of high and low, the affinity with luxury materials, and the slickly technological and, sometimes, veering on the plain trashy. It’s as if Marni’s Consuelo Castiglioni is the spiritual heiress to all of that Italian–controlled playfulness that hints at chaos, creating something new that is more than a sum of the references, writ large though they are. And you don’t get much more postmodern than that.

For pre-fall, don’t go expecting any deviation from that approach, though that doesn’t mean that familiarity has bred discontent. There were some very fine clothes in this collection, which referenced the idea of youth cults, specifically the teddy boys (British 1950s rock ’n’ rollers) and rockabilly. That meant oversize short coats over skinny cropped pants and flat chunky shoes, black-and-white loafers (now high heeled), and plaid used traditionally (kilts) and nontraditionally (quilted down jackets). This was then all worked into Castiglioni’s usual throw-it-all-together way of dressing, with fur-sleeved jackets, graphic leggings, two-dimensional-print forties tea dresses, enormous gauntlets, fluorescent lace blouses and skirts, and sixties British kitchen-sink-drama leather coats. In short, something for everyone—and all of it able to be worn with pretty much everything that Castiglioni has designed before. She’s also nothing if not inclusive.